A Change of Seen

What in the name of all that is good and holy will it take for climate deniers to finally get that Climate Change actually exists??!!  That it's a very real thing.  That what you have seen and seen and seen for decades actually happened.  And ignoring it is catastrophic.

Okay, that's it.  That's the  whole point.  We are long past the line of having to "make the case" to prove the issue. 

And I really was going to stop there.  And gave it a lot of thought.  It certainly would have saved me (and you all) a lot of time.  But after much consideration, I kept getting annoyed that it was such a clear issue that three sentences could state the case.  And so, I realized it was best to continue.  Not to explain yet again all the scientific evidence why Climate Change is real, not to point out all the catastrophes we keeping seeing over the past decades and growing worse, but rather to clarify the problem, so we can avoid the sinkhole and find a safe way around it.  Science doesn't have to prove any longer that that's the sun in the sky.  The only thing to do is ponder what will it finally take for some people to accept that what they actually see is really, truly the sun in the sky.

Worse, it's not just "some people," but includes people elected to positions of authority who can act to help address continual devastation that regularly is destroying lives.

When Hurricane Helene hit, and crushed six states, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia -- towns flooded, roads washed out, and homes obliterated -- just the latest in the long stream of this month's "hurricane of the century," and all the non-stop "tornado of the century," "wildfire of the century," "flood of the century," "snow storm of the century" natural disasters rising up like playing whack-a-mole from hell, the MAGOP nominee for vice president "JD Vance" was asked if Hurricane Helene changed his support of Trump's insistence that Climate Change is just a hoax, and he said "No."

"No." 

That's why this is about the question above: what in heaven's name will it take for climate deniers to finally get that Climate Change actually exists??!!  Hurricane Helene (and all its monstrous predecessors) didn't convince them -- a hurricane that experts estimate might cause $175 BILLION in damages (not to mention hundreds of deaths and thousands of ruined lives) and just two weeks later, we now have...not just another Worst of the Century, but one that could push Helene into a backup story, which many authorities think could be overwhelmingly the worst ever.  Only two weeks later!  In virtually the same spot.  And there also are ten tornadoes thrown into the middle.  Because that's how Climate Change rolls.

And by the way, it's not just that we had the catastrophic Hurricane Helene followed a mere two weeks later by the even more catastrophic Milton -- no, those were just the headline-grabbing stories..  But...there were Hurricane Isaac, tropical storm Joyce, powerful Hurricane Kirk and massive Hurricane Leslie in between!!

It's been so expansive that you haven't even needed an autographed Trump Sharpie to widen the map and make it all seem more disastrous.

And this doesn't even include the rest of the world.  And again, it's not that there are all these hurricanes, tornados, wild fires, floods, snow storms, winter freezes, tsunamis and typhoons -- but that there are more and more of them, and (most of all to the point) they are overwhelmingly more powerful and consistently so than those we've seen for a century.  Because of Climate Change, rising temperatures, melting icebergs, increased rainstorms, expanded snows, heated oceans, creating intense cyclonical conditions and more, at levels not seen in our lifetime.

"It's a hoax," says Trump.

"No, it doesn't change my opinion," says "JD Vance".

"They can control the weather" rambles lunatic Marjorie Taylor Greene.  And her Jewish Space Lasers causing wild fires.

And the MAGOP denies it all.  There are, I'm certain, a great many reasons they deny it all.  But in part, and near the top of the list, as I wrote here, they deny it because former Democratic Vice President and former Democratic Presidential nominee Al Gore (who had the far-right Supreme Court steal the White House from him) championed Climate Change, won the Nobel Peace Prize and won an Oscar for his documentary on the subject, and so Climate Change became a political issue to conservatives, unwilling to accept its existence and give in to Al Gore being correct.  Many on the extreme right may not even remember those origins, because it's long-since become embedded in their core, to deny reality.  But that foundation is there.  Along with all the other reasons, including supporting industries from which they get political funding and also believing that science is the devil because it contradicts God.  (Never mind that, by their own arguments, it was God who created scientists.)

It's too expensive, they shout, to do what environmentalists want, to do what the Green New Deal calls for. Never mind that when you create a new industry, you create jobs and expand the economy.  And there's no downside:  if you're wrong, you've created a new industry.  If you're right, you've avoided disaster.  And never mind the biggest irony of all -- saying it's too expensive to address Climate Change -- is that the cost of not accepting the reality of Climate Change means you get $175 BILLION bills to pay for Hurricane Helene.  And that's before catastrophic Hurricane Milton hits.  And ignores all the previous gargantuan bills that have piled up and been paid already.  With more to come.  Bills so high that many insurers have pulled out of states like Florida and high wild fire areas of California.

"It's a hoax," says Trump.

"No, it doesn't change my opinion," says "JD Vance".

"Jewish Space Lasers," says the space cadet.

This is not to convince anyone that that is the sun in the sky.  That 2+2 equals four.  There's always going to be a "Well, what about...??" cry from climate deniers based on absolutely nothing but, rumor, conspiracy theory, chimera, and cheesecloth to every fact and reality.  There's always going to be a "If icebergs are melting, why doesn't the water level flood everything, hunh??!" -- and no childlike explanation of how the really easy scientific reality of displacement works (the same reason when ice cubes in a beverage melt, your glass doesn't overflow!) will change their certainty that the existence of Climate Change doesn't exist.

"I don't believe in Climate Change," they pout, petulantly stomping their foot.  The thing is, science is not a belief system.

Climate Change isn't just slamming everyone in the face, whether you believe it or not, it's destroying your towns, crushing your homes, burning your communities and drowning you.  And we know it, we've seen it all.  Time and again.  Seen it over and over. Been there, done that.  And it keeps getting worse, more powerful, more devastating.  Willful blindness is not a virtue.  So, this isn't about doing a better job trying to convince anyone to finally grasp the reality that keeps pummeling the Earth to life-churning degrees, time after time after time, with this week's Natural Disaster of the Century.  It's about them choosing not to listen.  It's on them.  

"It's a hoax," says Trump.

"No, it doesn't change my opinion," says "JD Vance".

"Oobla di, oobla da," says the life form over there in the corner.

"I don't believe in Climate Change," say all those who believe JFK is coming back to life.

This is only about one thing:  What in heaven's name will it take for climate deniers to finally get that Climate Change actually exists??!!  That it's a very real thing.  And ignoring it is catastrophic.

Water coming up to their ears, perhaps.  Maybe then, at last, some will realize reality and accept it.  The ones who don't, that's the gurgling sound you hear.